Samsung"s newest high-end handset will launch later than expected, missing next month"s Mobile World Congress (MWC) - the biggest event in the mobile industry calendar, at which the Korean firm has unveiled its Galaxy S-series flagships in recent years.
Earlier today, Samsung announced details of its investigation into the problems that plagued its Galaxy Note7 handset last year, following a series of fires that led to its full global recall of the device. It came as no great surprise that the company "concluded that the batteries had been the cause of the issues".
The head of Samsung"s mobile division, Koh Dong-jin, said the firm had worked tirelessly to establish the precise cause, and that "the lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process" - an implicit assurance to its customers that its future devices will be free of such problems.
But Koh also confirmed that the new Galaxy S8 will not be unveiled at MWC this year. He didn"t offer any indication of when its official announcement will come, although it"s widely believed that Samsung will hold a standalone launch event for the new device in April.
It"s not clear if Samsung"s decision to delay the launch of its latest Galaxy S flagship is the result of any specific problem that the company needs to address, or if it is simply taking extra time to ensure that the device is unaffected by the issues that hit the Galaxy Note7.
Samsung knows better than anyone that it can"t afford any further high-profile issues with its devices. Koh said that Samsung "will be working hard to regain consumer trust".
Source: Reuters